Chapter 19
Chapter
Nineteen
They rode out early the following day, Caroline and Eleanor in the carriage with Julien and Adrian following behind on horseback. It was Adrian who broke the silence first. “So, you’ve finally done it!”
“Done what?” Julien asked. He knew, or at least suspected, what his friend was alluding to.
“You’ve fallen completely in love with Miss Ashworth.
” Adrian made the observation with a smirk.
“I had long suspected you had feelings for her. I will confess I am surprised at the haste with which you are marrying though. Not that I question your choice, merely that I would’ve thought she would prefer to do this back in London with her family present. ”
“The truth is I have not fallen in love with Caroline,” Julien admitted.
There was no longer any reason to hide it.
As for Adrian’s assertions about delaying the wedding ceremony until her family could be present, it gave him some pause too.
“The fact is, quite simply, that I have always loved Caroline. I’ve dodged every matchmaking attempt in the interim for one reason and one reason alone… I would have no wife that was not her.”
Adrian nodded. “I had suspected something to that effect. Though you were quite gifted at dodging any questions put to you on the matter.”
He’d had his reasons, Julien thought. And those reasons still stood. He intended to protect her reputation. Even as a married woman, having left London under the cloud of such scandal and for that scandal to have followed her to Hertfordshire was something quite
The village was quiet when they arrived, though not so quiet that their presence went unnoticed.
A few doors opened just enough for a glance, and those glances lingered before retreating again.
Julien paid none of it any mind. His attention remained fixed on Caroline, and more precisely on the fact that her hand was in his and had not left it since he had helped her down from the carriage.
The vicar, a surrogate for the Archbishop in matters of marriage licenses, had a small and simply maintained office in a building nestled between the church and the vicarage.
There was no ceremony to be found within it, and that suited him.
He had no interest in spectacle when the outcome had already been decided.
The vicar required little of them beyond names and signatures, their sworn oath that there were no impediments to their marriage and then the process moved quickly once it began.
They were all escorted to the church, and as they waited for the register to be brought forth, Julien took a moment to ask the question that still plagued him.
“You are certain of this?” he asked, his voice low as his thumb brushed once across her knuckles. “We could wait. We could do this properly, if you wished it.”
Caroline turned her hand in his and held his gaze. There was no hesitation in her expression.
“The sooner I can be your wife, the better,” she said, her voice steady as she gave the smallest shake of her head. “Nothing else matters.”
He watched her for a moment, then nodded once as though the matter were settled beyond question. He turned back to the register and signed his name without further pause.
The rest followed in quick order. Adrian stepped forward to witness without comment, and Eleanor hovered close at Caroline’s side, her excitement barely contained though she made an effort toward composure.
When the final signatures were complete, Eleanor let out a breath she had clearly been holding.
“Well, that was shockingly efficient,” she said, slipping her arm through Caroline’s as she smiled up at her. “I am not certain whether to be disappointed or impressed.”
Adrian glanced toward her, a faint smile touching his mouth as he answered. “Give it time. You may yet find drama enough before the day is done.”
Julien allowed a quiet breath of amusement at that and turned his attention back to Caroline. He did not release her hand.
“There is a tavern just ahead,” he said, nodding toward the street as he guided her toward the door. “We should take a meal before we return.”
Caroline inclined her head as she stepped beside him, her fingers tightening slightly in his. “That seems only fair. We should give them time to decide what they think of us.”
The tavern was modest but clean, and they were shown to a table without delay.
The meal was simple, cold ham with bread and cheese, a few wizened apples and a truly delicious fig tart.
For a time the conversation remained light.
Eleanor spoke at length, moving easily from one topic to the next, while Adrian answered her with patient amusement.
Julien listened without truly hearing. His focus remained fixed on Caroline and the quiet certainty that had settled between them.
The innkeeper approached their table during the second course. There was hesitation in his manner now, and Julien noticed it at once as the man cleared his throat and addressed him.
“Begging your pardon, sir,” he said, lowering his voice as he shifted his weight. “I thought you might wish to hear. News has come down from the house.”
Julien straightened slightly, his expression sharpening as he gave the man his full attention. “What news?”
“Mrs. Sutton, sir,” the innkeeper replied, his tone careful as he held Julien’s gaze. “Miss Langford, as she was. She is dead. Fell down the stairs but a few hours ago…. Dead before the first of the servants even reached her, as I heard it.”
The words settled heavily over the table. Julien felt the slight tightening of Caroline’s hand beneath his own.
“And Mr. Sutton?” he asked, his voice even as he watched the man.
“They say he has taken ill,” the innkeeper said, shaking his head once. “Gravely so. Some strange affliction. No one seems to know the cause.”
Julien inclined his head and dismissed him with a quiet word. He turned his attention to Caroline, studying her for a moment before he spoke again.
“If he is as ill as they say, you may wish to go to him,” he said, his thumb brushing lightly over her knuckles. “You were together for a long time. If there is anything to be said, this may be your last chance.”
Caroline met his gaze, her expression settled rather than shaken. There was no hesitation in her answer.
“All William ever did was lie,” she said, her tone calm as she held his eyes. “I doubt he would be truthful now simply because he is near the end. If he is near the end. Sadly, I am not even inclined to trust that. It could be naught but a manipulation.”
She drew in a breath, then continued, her grip on his hand tightening slightly.
“I know the truth,” she said, her voice steady. “He did not love me. Not once. And I do not think that I loved him. I loved the man I convinced myself he was, and loving someone for their potential is only a way of lying to oneself.”
Julien said nothing in response. He tightened his hold on her hand in silent acknowledgment.
Eleanor reached across the table and rested her hand briefly over Caroline’s, her expression softening as she offered silent support. Adrian inclined his head once, his agreement quiet but unmistakable.
They finished their meal without returning to the subject. The conversation resumed, though it did not carry the same lightness as before. When they rose to leave, the shift remained unspoken but understood.
The return to Lakewood House was quiet, but it was not strained. Julien did not release Caroline’s hand at any point during the journey. The contact between them had settled into something certain, something that required no further examination.
When the house came into view, neither of them slowed, but immediately made their way upstairs.
An efficient servant had already moved Caroline’s things into his room.
It was strangely and yet satisfyingly intimate to see her comb and brush, her little box of hairpins, all resting upon the dressing table there.
Their belongings entwined as their lives would now be.
She turned back to him, but she didn’t speak.
Instead, she reached up and loosened the bib front of her gown until it fell to her waist. One by one, she began to peel the layers of clothing from herself.
And heaven help him, he could do nothing but look on with both supreme satisfaction and knife-blade like anticipation.
When she had stripped down only to the fine lawn chemise, a garment that hid nothing from his questing gaze, Julien began to remove his own clothing.
Jacket. Boots. Waistcoat. Then his shirt.
He hesitated at the fall front of his breeches.
In all their explorations, she had not yet seen him nude.
And he had no notion if she was prepared for what that might entail.
But Caroline did something unexpected but remarkably welcome.
She stepped forward and reached for the buttons of his trousers.
Despite the fact that her hands trembled, she loosed them one by one.
And he let her. Every brush of her knuckles, every graze of her fingertips was nothing shy of sensual torment, but it was also achingly pleasurable.
“We are a bit unseemly in our haste,” she mused. “The servants will no doubt be scandalized that we have taken to our bed in the middle of the day.”
“Our bed,” he repeated. “I rather like the sound of that. In fact, breaking from tradition, even when we return to town, I would have us share a chamber. We have waited too long together to let something as narrow and baseless as convention keep us apart.”
“I agree,” she said softly. “In fact, I find the idea of anything at all separating us to be more than I can tolerate.” With that she loosened the ties of her chemise and the garment slipped down her arms, catching for a moment on the pebbled tips of her breasts before slithering to the floor in a gauzy puddle at her feet.
“I believe the last of the barriers is yours to take care of.”
Julien gripped his trousers at the waist and carefully slid them down over his hips, until he could step out of them entirely.
When he rose, his response to her nearness and to her nakedness was impossible to conceal.
His shaft was achingly hard, to the point of true suffering.
But he ignored that and focused instead on Caroline, watching her reactions.
He saw no fear in her—only curiosity and eagerness.
“This is the last missing piece,” she said. “The last bit of my education.”
“Oh, I am not so certain… there are lessons still to be taught. But another day. Today is for making you mine in every way that I can.”